After a season of promise stifled by terrible luck, rookie driver Norbert Michelisz has finally taken his maiden World Touring Car Championship win, wrapping up proceedings in the season’s final race at Macau.

The Hungarian led home fellow SEAT runner Gabriele Tarquini and Chevrolet driver Robert Huff, which resulted in the pair finishing equal second on points in the Drivers’ Championship standings. The matter was resolved in Tarquini’s favour by dint of having picked up more race wins than Huff.

Rather atypically for a SEAT in a standing start, Michelisz leapfrogged the rear-wheel-drive BMW of Race 2 polesitter Kristian Poulsen off the grid, but the race wasn’t even a lap old before the red flags were unfurled when Andrei Romanov and Nobuteru Taniguchi collided at the Police corner and blocked the circuit.

The Bamboo Engineering Chevrolets of Darryl O’Young and Yukinori Taniguchi were right behind the pile-up, and sustained race-ending damage that would end their slim hopes of taking the Independent Teams’ championship.

The race was restarted behind the Safety Car, and again Michelisz led the way, while Poulsen suffered a loss of pace and fell down the order as the laps ticked by, which allowed Sergio Hernández to take the Independents Trophy title for the second time in his WTCC career.

Up at the front, Huff was let through by Muller so he could have a crack at taking second place in the Drivers’ Championship standings, and the Briton fought his way past Augusto Farfus’ BMW before getting onto the tail of Tarquini on the final lap, but being unable to find a way past.

Muller would also find his way past a rather tail-happy Farfus, and the Brazilian would finish fifth with his rear bumper flailing off the back of his BMW.

Tom Coronel finished in sixth place, with Andy Priaulx taking a fine seventh after charging his way through the field from his lowly grid slot, brought about by his accident in the first race.

WTCC Macau Race 2 Final Classification (10 laps):

Driver

Team

Result

Grid

1.

Norbert Michelisz

Zengö-Dension SEAT León TDI

54:37.415

4

2.

Gabriele Tarquini

SR Sport SEAT León TDI

+ 1.193

5

3.

Robert Huff

RML Chevrolet Cruze LT

+ 1.543

8

4.

Yvan Muller

RML Chevrolet Cruze LT

+ 10.886

7

5.

Augusto Farfus

RBM Team BMW 320si

+ 14.675

3

6.

Tom Coronel

SR Sport SEAT León TDI

+ 14.894

12

7.

Andy Priaulx

RBM Team BMW 320si

+ 15.716

22

8.

Tiago Monteiro

SR Sport SEAT León TDI

+ 16.360

6

9.

Sergio Hernández (I)

Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si

+ 20.951

11

10.

Franz Engstler (I)

Team Engstler BMW 320si

+ 25.099

9

11.

Michel Nykjær

SUNRED SEAT León TDI

+ 43.156

26^

12.

Mehdi Bennani (I)

Wiechers Sport BMW 320si

+ 47.302

10

13.

Colin Turkington

AVIVA-COFCO WSR BMW 320si

+ 61.671

27^

14.

Kevin Chen (I)

Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si

+ 107.235

17

15.

Philip Ma (I)

Jacob & Co Honda Accord Euro

+ 112.404

18

16.

César Campaniço (I)

Novadriver Total BMW 320si

+ 2 laps

14

Not Classified

NF

Masaki Kano (I)

Team Engstler BMW 320si

6 laps

20

NF

Kristian Poulsen (I)

Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320si

4 laps

1

NF

Joseph Merszei (I)

Team Engstler BMW 320si

3 laps

19

NF

Alain Menu

RML Chevrolet Cruze LT

2 laps

2

NF

Andrei Romanov (I)

Team Engstler BMW 320si

0 laps

15

NF

Nobuteru Taniguchi (I)

Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si

0 laps

16

NF

Yukinori Taniguchi (I)

Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti

0 laps

13

NF

Fredy Barth

SUNRED SEAT León TDI

0 laps

25^

NF

Darryl O’Young (I)

Bamboo Chevrolet Lacetti

0 laps

23^

NS

Henry Ho (I)

Ho Chun Kei BMW 320si

21

NS

André Couto

SR Sport SEAT León TDI

24^

^ Forced to start from the rear of the grid due to parc ferme regulations breaches